Lottery games, and especially instant win lottery gaming tickets also known as scratch off lottery tickets, have had a resurgence in popularity in recent years. Their popularity stems from the instant gratification they provide to players. Players instantly know whether they have won or not and there is no need to wait for results as in weekly or bi-weekly lotteries. Also, instant lottery games require more active involvement from the player than the weekly lotteries. Thus, instant lottery games provide more entertainment value to players than other, more regular lotteries.
One method of providing entertainment to instant lottery game players is by having instant lottery games attempt to replicate the thrill of playing the more traditional wagering games such as blackjack, roulette, slots, and other similar games. However, one aspect that instant win gaming tickets have not been able to replicate is the wagering aspect of such traditional games. Currently, players only win set amounts for each instant win game they play. For some instant win gaming tickets, there could be multiple games per ticket. Thus, regardless of how many independent games may be played on a single ticket, a player's maximum possible prize is set—a player does not increase his potential winnings by winning more games. The player is not given the chance to wager more for each game and, consequently, his chances of winning a larger prize is not increased. “Streaks” of luck or consecutive games won are not rewarded.
This feature of being able to wager more on an instant win game would, if available, entice more players to play the instant win gaming tickets. Furthermore, such an enhancement would increase the entertainment value of the games for the players.
From the above, there is therefore a need for a gaming system or an instant win gaming ticket that provides the required enhancement. It should be noted that instant lottery games are a subset of instant win gaming tickets. Such instant win gaming tickets encompass all types of gaming that involve pre-printed tickets that players play by revealing the pre-printed results. As noted above, one possible type of such tickets are those commonly known as “scratch-off” or “scratch and win” lottery tickets.
An object of the present invention is to overcome, or at least mitigate, one or more drawbacks of the prior art, or at least provide an alternative.